With the arrival of Peak Oil, the curtain has closed on Act 1 of the drama Petroleum Man. What will happen in Act 2? Chekhov said, "If there's a gun on the wall at the beginning of the play, by the end it must go off." In the world's nuclear arsenal are many guns on the wall. If life copies art, will there be an Act 3 in which the players, having learned their lesson the hard way, live sustainably? To explore these and other questions... FTW's Act 2 Blog. Read, comment, take heart! Orkin

The transaction extends a heady year for deals in the power industry, following Duke Energy’s acquisition of the Cinergy Corporation for $9 billion; Berkshire Hathaway’s [controlled by Buffett] purchase of PacifiCorp for $5.1 billion; and NRG Energy’s acquisition of Texas Genco last month for $5.8 billion. Energy companies have been using growing amounts of cash and higher share prices to seize on a pivotal moment for assets that just a year or two ago were too risky to touch.

The year ahead may bring even more deals, following the relaxation of laws restricting utility ownership.

Michael C. Ruppert responded:

It's not just that Buffett is after Constellation. He wants their nuke plants. That further confirms a trend I have been sussing out. There will never be any such thing as clean coal with carbon sequestration. Oil from shale is a hopeless boondoggle. As the gap widens between demand and supply Buffett correctly sees that nuke plants, already in operation, are going to become cash cows. I seriously doubt if even a few new nuke plants will ever get built. Too expensive. Too much lag time. Too many essential regulatory hurdles.

And this further confirms the absolutely brilliant comment made recently by "Mary". "Does any of this look like an exit strategy to you?" Of course it doesn't. Within the elites only a few see the whole picture and I think Buffett is one. Those who get it are playing competitively against those who don't. Shattuck was the consummate insider. (See Rubicon and FTW on insider trading). I stand by an observation I made years ago, however. I have yet to meet a billionaire who has my best interests at heart.

Jenna Orkin adds:

This isn't analogous to the "final solution" in which one smoking-gun meeting determined the fate of millions. It's unlikely that behind the closed doors of Davos or at some undisclosed location in the Cayman Islands (except it seems that there's nothing on the Cayman Islands but happy honeymooners and post office boxes doubling as corporate headquarters,) the Elites came up with an Ultimate Exit Strategy.

Rather, the insiders' insiders, the innermost of the Matryoshka dolls, read the tea leaves and plan accordingly. This is not a team effort but a game in which there are individual winners (as well as God knows how many losers, including all the spectators.) Everyone's playing close to the vest. They reveal their plans on a need-to-know basis or rather, since we're in an every-man-for-himself scenario, on the basis of those whom it behooves them to inform.

Michael Kane responded:

Post Peak ANY power source with any sort of reliability will be precious. And these gigantic private power entities already have the laws in place to sell to the highest bidder, pricing people off of the grid.

The recession and depression will delay this process by pricing people off of the grid slowly. If there were to ever be an abrupt spike in prices where 10, 20, 30 40 percent of the consumers were priced off the grid at one time, that would be the definitve introduction of the fast crash. The elite prefer the slow-burn as they can manage it to their benefit with more ease. The fast crash leaves too much chaos at play (though could be unavoidable); the mere symbolism of the Obama administration helps curtail the stirrings of rebellion and maintain the slow-burn scenario for as long as possible, (a point Indira Singh recently made to me.)

Mike Ruppert responded:

All very true, Mike. But the elites are not in complete control and their control is diminishing. I have seen NOTHING that might convince me that they have a handle on all of this. They are not maintining the"slow burn" scenario now. All they're doing is trying to slow the fast crash down... like digging in your heels as a 1400 lb horse drags you around the corral. Everything they are doing that we can see is ad hoc, a reaction, like Lucy and Ethel in the choclate factory.

The sexual harassment case in Oregon did not proceed in November and has been continued to March. I am very pleased with this. Starting in late August and September, local Oregon officials with the Oregon Sate Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) tried to slam-dunk a default settlement by mailing notices to me and my attorney at bad addresses and then waiting until we failed to file some obscure forms which we didn't know about. They knew exactly how to find me and my lawyer. Through a series of telephonic hearings, correspondence and motions we demonstrated that the intent of the locals was to deny me due process and the fair hearing I have sought from day one. Oregon has no case. Medford, and most of Southern Oregon, is conservative Republican, Sarah Palin country. Locals pols there have connection to national pols through fundraising and other connections. The intent of this, as I re-emerged from "retirement", and especially as I was writing my new book, was to intimidate me back into silence. It failed. I (we) are so ready for March! I will finally be able to vindicate myself clearly in a public venue. Contrary to what Dave thought, no, there is no reason why I expect any of this to continue or increase. It is all tied to the outgoing Bush/Cheney regime and they're on the way out. This was their last shot at me. It was the Bush/Cheney gang that threw everything but the kitchen sink at me for eight years. We have great local counsel and enough evidence to totally discredit the young woman who tried to set me up from the start. Having failed to get a summary judgment with very flawed documents and investigation, Oregon's BOLI is now in an "Oh shit" position. So is the complainant.

The first question before the admin law judge's eyes was, "Why in the heck is that state of Oregon trying suddenly to pursue a case that has lain fallow for more than two years?" BOLI has demonstrated enormous prejudice and bias and that's already in the record.

Don't worry, after March I will be trumpeting the outcome of this hearing; then filing some suits of my own. I am known as being a very patient man when it comes to getting my personal justice. I could not be happier about my position in this than I am now. So, don't worry about it. We have other things to fret about.

14 comments:

Constellation Energy recently paid every BGE customer $170 as a bribe for the excessive electric rates they are charging the Baltimore/Washington region. It's part of the reason why they are having cash issues. The rates at which they charged other regions of the country are significantly lower than in the Baltimore/Washington region. Many people here saw their electric bills rise from $150 August in 2006 to well over $450 this August. I have many friends in their twenties that have scaled back their energy usage to the point of taking showers in the dark to make ends meet. Watching Constellation energy go is bringing a "silent" cheer to many Maryland residents hoping for cheaper energy rates. I don't see that happening.

Think what you will of his politics, but potentially hundreds of thousands or millions of people were introduced to the idea of Peak Oil today because of Michael Moore:

"You might assume from this that I couldn't give a rat's ass about these miserably inept crapmobile makers down the road in Detroit city. But I do care. I care about the millions whose lives and livelihoods depend on these car companies. I care about the security and defense of this country because the world is running out of oil -- and when it runs out, the calamity and collapse that will take place will make the current recession/depression look like a Tommy Tune musical."

A couple of months ago, Mike wrote "It is no coincidence then that a two-and-a-half year old sexual harassment claim against me in Oregon was just reactivated and scheduled for a hearing in November." I'm curious what happened with this; this post is really amazing (I'm new here but reading as much as I can) and, being amazing, I guess the harassment Mike suffered is likely to restart....

I left a comment on the last entry about possible blast furnace shutdowns in Japan, but if you do a news search for blast furnaces you can find articles about shutdowns from around the world. This I think is a very important indication of industrial civilization's slide. Of course furnaces can be started up again, but at considerable expense that needs to be justified by demand. Watch this one carefully.

I am a bit of a "babe in the woods" I have, like many I suppose, being trying to wade through the crap, so please excuse my ignorance if (when) I do happen to display it.

Having found FTW and this blog I would like to thank all involved for their outstanding work in helping the blind such as myself try to make some semblance of the situation and possibly find strategies to mitigate the impact.

The information provided in this particular blog concerning buffet, Constellation Energy etc.. IMO are the real nuggets. I think it may well be reasonable, that some of those who thought they were sitting in first class on the Titanic with first access to the life rafts are about to be shunted into second and third class to join the rest of the "herd", watching this process as it unfolds may well help connect some dots of events on the ground (discerning insider information from the actions of insiders as FTW et al seem to do so well).

aside:

Despite the stock market rallies - in the past two days this from Reuters

US Treasury 10-yr CDS hits record high

Not exactly a vote of confidence on the long term prospects for the US economy!

The spread or risk premium on 10-year U.S. Treasury credit default swaps hit a record high on Monday, extending a recent trend as market participants continued to fret about the scale of the government's financial rescue programmes.

Ten-year U.S. Treasury CDS widened to 68.4 basis points from Friday's close of 60 basis points, according to credit data company CMA DataVision.

You may also want to note the fact that Cargill is looking to buy up all of Verasun's plants. My friend in the grain business has told me that Cargill controls the market and basically forced the price of corn to sky rocket, which in the end put Verasun out of business. Now that the plants have been built and all the infrastructure is in place, whomever takes them over stands to make a fortune.

"While Johnson is making no announcements, the ethanol industry is buzzing with news that some undisclosed firm has made a bid to purchase all of VeraSun's assets out of bankruptcy. Such a deal would require deep pockets, because VeraSun, based in Sioux Falls, S.D., owns 16 large-scale plants including two in Minnesota. Speculation has centered on three potential buyers: CHS, Wayzata-based food giant Cargill and rival ethanol producer Poet LLC."